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We live in a world of light and noise. For many, huddling around the warmth of a fire is a novelty, not a necessity. We have no fear of the restless dead and their torments. It’s not often we get a window into a world where this was not the case… THREAD #FolkloreThursday /1
Sometime around the turn of the 15th century, a monk at a Cistercian monastery at Byland Abbey in North Yorkshire used the blank pages of a manuscript (Royal MS 15 A xx) to write down a number of stories. /2 
Centuries later, in 1922, the Cambridge medievalist M. R. James - remember that name - translated the stories from Latin, & what he discovered was something terrible & wonderful. What he had, in the voice of a 15th century man, were tales of the dead walking among us. /3
The ‘Byland Abbey Ghost Stories’ constitute twelve brief tales, each concerning an incident related to the monk by locals in the area surrounding the monastery. Without spoiling them all - I’d hate to deprive you of reading them - here are some of the more chilling tales. /4
There is the story of a man travelling by night from Ampleforth to Gilling. Along the way, he was assaulted by a spirit, manifested as a hideously powerful crow, wreathed in sparks. Forcing it away with prayer, it then returned as a large dog, wrapped in chains. /5
Asking the spirit what it wanted, it replied that it seeked absolution for its sins with masses. Then, manifesting as a burning soul, the spirit demanded absolution from a certain priest. It warned that should this not happen, the man would begin to rot. /6 (Art: Fred Miranda)
The spirit then told the man that it only had this power over him because he was not a churchgoer, before vanishing. Terrified, the man returned home & fell ill. Fearing that the spirit’s words were true, went to York to secure the masses & absolution. /7
Returning to where he’d seen the spirit, he drew a protective circle to summon it. It appeared, looking like a king of centuries earlier, thanking the man and instructing him to go wash himself in a certain stream. While the man did recover, he never forgot what had happened. /8
Another tale tells of the ghost of Robert Bolteby of Kilburn, who would linger by the windows and doorways of villagers, causing dogs to howl and those within to turn away in fear. Some say he plagued individuals with illness. For weeks, nobody was able to get any rest. /9
Finally, the young men of the village came together to see what they could do. They came together in the churchyard one evening and waited for the spirit to rise from its grave. When it did so, most fled but two. One grabbed the ghost (?!) while the other ran to the priest. /10
When the priest arrived, the spirit began to speak, not from it’s mouth, but in a low, hollow voice from deep inside. It began to confess his misdeeds in life, and the priest absolved it of its sins. Having done this, the apparition vanished, never to be seen again. /11
Finally, there is the tale of a rector of the village of Kirby. After he died, he was buried alongside his favourite mistress, Bellelande. He did not rest easy, however. The text relates he wandered from his grave, going so far as to pluck the eye of another mistress out. /12
The horror and terror provoked by the rector’s actions inspired a local abbot to order the rector exhumed. A man named Roger Wayneman was ordered to take the rector’s coffin and throw it into deep waters. Along the way, he was tormented by the angry spirit of the rector. /13
When Roger got the lake, the oxen he was using to draw Jacob’s coffin almost drowned, such was their terror. It took a lot of work to make sure the coffin was submerged and still. However, from that point, the spirit did not trouble anybody else. /14
As a historian, I find these tales absolutely fascinating. It’s not just that I love a good spooky story - I live for that stuff - but the manner of the hauntings reveal a clear meeting of cultures, and the negotiation of myth. /15
The spirits of the Byland Abbey tales have all the hallmarks of the Norse/Danish ‘draugr’ - not just ghosts, but the dead, reanimated and granted abilities such as shape-shifting and - this is crucial - the ability to touch the living, to hurt them. /16 is.cuni.cz/studium/predme…
We see this clearly in each of the stories - the first ghost changes form, the second can be grabbed by someone, and the third has the ability to pull an eye out. These are not the traditional spirits that we’re familiar with - the Norse influence of Viking Britain is strong. /17
The Norse influence is particularly clear in the first tale, when the man summons the spirit. The ghost appears in the guise of an old warrior king, much like those who came with the Great Heathen Army to Yorkshire centuries before. /18 (Art: Deviantart/Satonoy)
Note that almost all of the stories end by with a mass being said for the dead, or absolution. This aligns very strongly with the medieval Church’s dogma at its peak - ‘ars moriendi’, or ‘the art of dying well’ was all important & forgiveness needed to have been asked for. /19
The exception is the tale of the rector’s, where his spirit is banished by his remains being submerged. This has deep echoes back to the bog burials of the Bronze & Iron Age that were common across Britain, northern Europe and Scandinavia. The old ways still work, sometimes! /20
What we have here are the folk beliefs of a population, fairly unchanged since the arrival of the Norse in the 9th century, slowly being informed and shaped by Christian belief. The two worldviews coexist in these stories, creating a new mythology. /21
The Byland Abbey Ghost Tales continue to fascinate historians, for their strange, often forthright nature. They’re not much like the ghost stories we’re used to, where the dead can’t touch us. They’re treated as a fact of life, another creature to fear, a physical presence. /22
If you’d like to read the Byland Abbey Ghost Tales for yourself, you can here. /23 hplovecraft.hu/print.php?type…
As for that Cambridge medievalist, M. R. James, well, those ghost stories that he translated were a huge influence on the stories that he himself would write. In addition to his scholarship, he became known as one of the greatest horror short story writers *ever*. /24
You can learn more about M. R. James, and read some of his works here. A warning to the curious, however - they may leave you a little… changed. /25 ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/j/james/mr/ind…
As for Byland Abbey, you are very much encouraged to visit it, as it is cared for by @EnglishHeritage. Visitor details here. /26 english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/b…
Hope you enjoyed that. I love telling stories, & I think that stories *about* stories are some of the most important - they teach us a lot about how we view the world, and how that is shaped over time. Farewell. I’m off to say a few masses for my own soul…/FIN #FolkloreThursday
PS. Here's a song from the same area, with possible pre-Christian roots, lyrics 14th century. I think you'll find the subject matter is quite similar to the tales.
